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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Entertaining bits on the Hugos

Right, so I’ve been in a friendly vote war on a list with my
writer buddy @Michelle4Laughs over a list on Listopia keeping track of
books eligible to the Hugo awards in 2016. And I’ve received a number of
questions about the Hugos and the list, and no, being on it in no way
guarantees a nomination. In fact, the likelihood of my book getting nominated
is exceptionally slim―but
as with all fun things on the internet―there
is a slim possibility.

So, the Hugos

Entertainingly, the Hugos are currently a popularity contest
where one can BUY the right to vote for not only the nominations, but also the
award. In fact, it’s such a scattergun system, that last year, a very small group
of people all threw their votes one way and got a whole slate of stories
nominated for Hugos, stories that might not have otherwise made it.

This is interesting for a couple of reasons, it literally
means that a couple dozen people voting in concert could change the fate of the
whole Hugos one of the biggest awards in science fiction and fantasy. In short, it’s slim that a nomination is coming my way, but a
concerted effort could, in fact, make it a reality―unlikely as it may be, as happened last year.

I said currently because the Hugos, of all the awards, is a
rapidly changing target. It takes two years to change how the voting will be
done, and after last year’s debacle―and
last year was a debacle―voting is likely to change next year. Another entertaining fact: you have until January 31st to become a voting member of the Hugos!

So what does this list mean?

Nothing. It means nothing. It’s a voting member’s list modeled
after another list, and it does more to collect books than it does to help
people connect to them.

That being said, I’m still trying to beat out Michelle Hauck’s
Grudging on this list, because, you know, competitive streak!

For the curious, you can find the list here. As of this
writing, I’m number 68, so all first page.And again, if you want to buy a vote and nominate my book for the Hugos (voting member is the supporting membership), I wouldn't stop you there either.

5 comments:

I know that people are still pretty upset about the Hugos, but I sort of feel like what happened last year might be one of the best things to happen to it. It got a lot of publicity, and it made people think about how they want the award to be handed out in the future.